Memorial Day in Colorado Gold Country

Opening Day for Tin Pan Prospector

Memorial Day. Remember and thank all who served or gave their lives in service to this country. I am truly grateful for their dedication and sacrifices for my freedom. This weekend we remember it twice. Yesterday which was the actual day, and today which is the observed day. You have all been in my thoughts this weekend.

Well, I’m sure all of you are wondering what I have been up to since the Gazette missed it’s deadline. You probably know we opened up camp a week ago, and since then we have been unpacking, stuffing everything into nooks and crannies in the camper, having a bit of fun and working our tails off trying to get to Alma by 9 and help Tin Pan get started for the season.

Chad has his summer operation located north of Alma, 1 ½ miles from the South Park Saloon, just past mile marker 72 on the east side of the road. There’s a bit of a dip getting off, so be careful. There is plenty of parking area, and panning is at the back near the old bridge. He plans to crib the back of it up to make it look more like a mine entrance. Should be good for some photo ops, and he has some good areas for prospecting for gold, gold panning, dredging, and highbanking in Colorado.

We have had several highbankers and sluicers in to try it out, as well as panners out for a lesson. The weather has been really good, with mornings cool and afternoons quite warm and sunny. We are seeing a lot of fines and some larger flakes coming out of the top of the bank, and more fines and flakes out of the stream. The dirt and gravel are all loose and part of moraine slump, so volume is going to be the name of the game. Gold in the stream runs all the way through the loose gravel with the biggest being located on bedrock about 20 feet down.

Snow around the Orphan Boy mine should be about melted, and we should be able to get in there and prove that stream soon. The mine dumps are showing some very interested waste rock. You can go and pick up a few for a $10.00 fee per day, as well as the usual highbanking, dredging and metal detecting fees posted on his website. Drop by if you are around and say that you read about it here. We like to know where people hear about Tin Pan.

Other than working to get all this started, we haven’t had much time for anything else. Gold is looking like it has found a resting place for now and closed Friday for the weekend at $1219.40. You will find an abbreviated store on the website for the summer as lugging everything around and shipping is a problem. eMail me if you saw something you wanted and it isn’t there right now. I can always ship when we go home for family stuff and pick up supplies.

Have a great gold finding season.
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com

A Windy Start to Our Gold Prospectign Season

I wish I had a picture to go along with the awful ride we had on Saturday to B.V. from Elbert, Colorado! We got waylaid for three hours in Colorado Springs after fighting 60+ mph winds for two hours towing the UTV from its storage place at a friend's home. We broke a tie down strap and almost ruined the doors before we stopped to take them off and tie them down, and then stopped at another friend's house to wait out the wind.

We pulled into camp about 7:45 p.m. and still had to do the basic unpacking before we could fall into bed and tackle the rest of the unpacking the next morning.  After we had accomplished that, we took a rest and headed down to GPOC's  Prospector III for some river time with the gold pans. 

There were several other members there dredging, sluicing and panning for gold as the river has not come up all the way yet.  Snow is still locked up in the mountains and the water is under ice on the lakes, but with this wind and the dirt being blown in from the desert, it will soon melt ice on the lakes enough to open the reservoir gates and send water down to Pueblo.  When that happens, the run off will begin on the Arkansas River and it could rise 2 feet rather suddenly.

We decided to make our trip home today as the weather is still windy and the temps are falling, too.  Not much we can (or want to) do in all this wind!  Since I missed the Gazette deadline, I thought I would send you a report today while I have some time.

The gate at Cache Creek should be open this weekend, if not sooner, and the area below Prospector III has been designated as an area for panning and sluicing only by the BLM.  One dredger has already been sited for violations in this area this spring, so if you think there isn't anyone watching, you would be wrong.

Tin Pan Prospector Outfitters has decided to open the pay for use public panning area at a spot north of Alma on highway 9 on the east side of the road.  (I'll get you a mile marker later this week when I know what it is.  It will be located about a mile north of Alma, though.) Anyone who is interested in additional gold panning, sluicing, highbanking or dredging will be directed from there.  There will be a building, signs and parking, as well as your friendly gold prospector to greet you. You will be able to giver 'er a try starting Memorial Day weekend. 

All in all, we are looking forward to a GREAT gold prospecting season here in Colorado.  Hopefully, we will see some of you here this summer, and remember to be careful around the water until July with all the water coming down out of the mountains. Those streams are sometimes deeper than you think and the currents are strong and swift along their downhill race to the sea. 

Also be mindful of the altitude you will be at if you are coming from much lower elevations.  Altitude sickness can put you flat on your back if you aren't careful with alcohol and salt intake.  A couple of easy days is always recommended until you get acclimated.  Have fun out there, obey the rules and regulations, fill in your holes, and be respectful of all others.  And above all, remember this is MY home!  Take care of it!

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com

Hooked on Gold Gazette 5/14/2010

• Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1231.40 – high $1250.40


• Spot price last Gazette : $1137.70

________________

Gold ‘N’ Store
Calendar of Events

May
• 1st May Day
• 9th Mother’s Day
• 29th – 31st Memorial Day weekend

June
• 14th Flag Day
• 19th-20th Kingdom Days-Breckenridge
• 26th-27th Western Mining Museum
_________________________________

NEWS

Ok, Ok, I got the message. LOL! I have several loyal followers who have reminded me that I haven’t been blogging recently and leaving all of you out of the loop of information. For your reading pleasure, this Gazette will be nice and long. :>D

As you can imagine, there has been a lot going on to keep me so busy I have not had the hour it takes to write some words for you. Last weekend GPOC had their annual Let’s Go Gold Panning Days at Point Bar, and, from what I am told, it was its’ usual rounding success with gold prospectors all over the place. We missed this year as my kids have been bugging me about not ever being home for Mother’s Day, and so I opted to indulge them this year. They were grateful and treated me to a BBQ and a dinner out later with lots of hugs and time with grandchildren, too. Instead to digging dirt, I spent my time chasing bubbles with our youngest grandson and listening to our granddaughter try to talk. We will be afield soon enough.

Gold is advancing once again this week on the heels of the Greece bailout. Europeans are not happy with this state of affairs and are buying gold as a hedge against the European economic problems they see coming in the future. At this rate I will have to raise gold prices again.

Memorial Day will be here before you know it. You will find many fairs to attend to kick off the summer season. If you are in the Colorado Springs area, GPOC will have their panning troughs out at Territory Days in Old Colorado City. For those of you in the mountains for the weekend, Tin Pan Prospector will be opening up their gold panning area for the season, too. Chad will be located in Alma this year and NOT on Highway 9 in Fairplay. You should be able to find signs in the Fairplay area to give you directions to where he will be located. He has two new areas for you to try out and Alma is more central to those locations. Right now he is looking at two sites and will make a decision soon where his staging and panning area will be. Stay tuned, as I will give you that location as soon as it is known.

Snow seems to be plaguing us this year, as we had more this past week. Still waiting for Spring weather so I can put away my winter clothes! Had the furnace on yesterday, too. Sure hope El Nino breaks soon so we get some warmer weather!

As a final note, I have had many forum members ask me about this website.  It is ONLY the forum that I must cancel.  Ning.com has decided to begin charging for all sites and so I will be dismantling the forum tomorrow.  Rest assured, I will be continue with my main website and this blog.

Have a great weekend. That’s it for me.

Until Next Week…..
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)

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World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know

THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now OPEN TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until OCTOBER 1st.

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